Aged To Perfection: How To Create Believable Patina

Painting a faux patina surface is one of the most enjoyable painting processes because it’s an art form, and it encourages experimentation. It’s a chance to break free from rigid rules; you can scratch, dig, spatter—it doesn’t even matter if the paint surface bubbles or has defects. Defects are desirable and add to the overall weathered appearance.

Being Car Craft magazine, we wanted to create a license plate featuring our classic 1970s logo using patina techniques. For this exercise, we wanted to try something a little different than the layering and sanding method. Looking closely at old painted surfaces, rust forms under the paint and pushes up against it. The surface of the rust is rough and the high spots break through the paint, forming a random pattern of various sized pits in the paint from large bubbles to tiny pinpricks.

This technique will show you how to use rock salt as a masking agent. The different sizes of the salt particles mimic the different sizes of pits. The surface is painted to look like rust and wetted with a spray bottle. Salt is then scattered on the surface. When the water dries, the top layer of paint is sprayed. Once the paint is dry, the salt is brushed away, revealing the tones of the bottom layer of paint.

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The Car Craft logo was actually done using several patina effects that can all be used independently of each other to various effect. One of the coolest aspects of weathered lettering is the way the paint surface wears down so that the brush strokes look almost transparent. To achieve this look, the paint is thinned down more than what would usually be used for brushed-on lettering. We also used enamel reducer to wipe away parts of the lettering, then slightly sand other areas.

The result has that look of old, blistered, weathered paint. The trick to painting patina is to experiment and practice. Play around on old parts and panels. If you want to use this technique on a vertical surface, you may need to use a medium lighter than rock salt, perhaps confetti or sawdust. Use a rinseable, water-soluble glue like egg white, and then sprinkle that on the side of the vehicle. The glue on the media makes it stick to the surface. Once the paint is sprayed, just wash it all off. That’s the fun of painting patina; there are no rules. In fact, some of the tools and materials you’ll use for patina you probably already have around the house. Start practicing on a sign for your shop or a gift for a friend. You might come up with something so cool, you’ll have to duplicate it on your car project!

The surface of this 1951 Chevy truck has a beautiful, natural patina. That’s real rust peeking out from that weathered orange paint. The lettering and logo, however, have been painted on and carefully worn away.Here are the tools and materials that were used for this project. An issue of Car Craft from February 1976, rock salt, ProMask, masking tape, spray bottle, rulers, stencil paper, airbrush, PPG paint, sandpaper, stir sticks, and masking materials for the rust effect. These include stretched-out ultra-fine scuff pads, a bubble-effect Artool airbrush template, and an old mesh bag.The first step when painting a logo or lettering is to figure the size that will best fit the space. Using a printer/scanner as a copier, we made up several sizes of the Car Craft logo. The middle size worked best on the license plate.The logo was traced onto a piece of stencil paper using a window as a light table. Stencil or frisket paper can be found at any art store or online. Some people use a product called transfer tape. Transfer or application tape is an adhesive-backed paper that is applied to the surface of vinyl and stencil graphics to keep them intact after they’ve been cut. You can get a roll for less than $7 online.The lettering is cut out using a No. 11 X-acto knife.We mixed two colors for the rust effect (a dark brown and a yellow brown) to create a medium brown. The steel plate was prep sanded, and the dark brown was randomly sprayed across the surface, leaving small areas showing though. To create the muted tones, we used a scuff pad that was stretched enough to see through it. Light and medium brown colors were sprayed through that. Spray paint can also be used.Plan the sizes, shapes, and the amount of “rust” you want to show; the salt will cover these areas. We poured rock salt into a plastic bag, and hit it with a hammer until there were different sizes of crystals. Spray a light coat of water over the plate, then place salt where you want “rust.” In areas where you want no top coat color, make sure to completely pile enough salt to cover any gaps.After letting it dry, we mixed up some 1970s Car Craft-ish red, and gently sprayed a light coat over the plate. Use a low air pressure to make sure not to blow the salt off the plate. Four light coats were applied.Here it is after 15 minutes of dry time, when it was no longer tacky. Brush the salt away away, using wax and grease remover to clean away any remaining salt or water. The edges of the top coat red were raised and blistered just like natural weathered paint! In fact, without graphics, you can call it a day right here, leaving it uncleared and raw, allowing nature to enhance the patina effect naturally. Our license plate calls for lettering, so the plate was clearcoated and sanded the next day.Now our stencil goes on the beautifully aged plate. Spare no effort getting it centered precisely using pinstripe tape and a ruler.Applying a stencil can be tricky. Here’s a simple way to get a good result: apply transfer tape to the surface of the stencil. Draw an arrow on the stencil to indicate which side is the top. Then peel half of the backing tape and cut it off, creating a hinge.Hold the stencil with two hands, line up the left side with the border tape, keeping the right side raised up and making sure it remains aligned with the border tape on the right. Once both ends were aligned, press the stencil onto the surface. Remove the backing on the remaining side and press the stencil down. A squeegee can help remove any bubbles.Remove the letters using tweezers. Use reducer to thin out some white paint and brush into the letter cut-outs. We took care to brush the paint strokes to the shape of the letters. In some places the paint was thicker, giving it the appearance of uneven fading from the elements.Cut up an old white cotton t-shirt and fold a piece of the fabric, creating a “point.” Dip it in reducer and carefully wipe over areas of the lettering to smooth the fading effect. If you make a mistake, it’s easy to go back and brush on more white.Remove the stencil and carefully wipe away any excess white paint that may have built up at the edge of the stencil lettering. Light sanding may also be done to increase the patina effect as needed. A machine-cut stencil was used for the very small lettering across the top.

SIDEBAR 1:For the CAD Savvy…
If you are familiar with working with CAD programs or have worked with graphics programs such as Corel or Adobe Illustrator, you can create your own lettering stencils without having to cut anything out. Simply type out the size lettering you want in the desired font, then save it to a flash drive or SD card. A sign shop can cut the stencil. Make sure to tell them not to “weed” the letters out of the stencil—leave them in place. Make sure to get some transfer tape to apply over the stencil after the stencil’s placement is determined. Once the stencil is in place, remove the transfer tape, and pick out the letters. This can be done with any design you draw on either of those programs. If you know how to create an AI or Corel file, you can make your own professional stencil.

SIDEBAR 2:Playing with Patina Techniques
This truck had the paint brushed on it. Normally, paint is smoothly applied, but to get a neat patina effect, instead of spraying a smooth coating on the bottom layer of your patina, try brushing on a rough, textured layer. Then spray the top coat over it, allow it to dry, and sand it. The raised parts of the texture will break through, giving a natural, random effect. Play around with this technique, maybe using the rough texture with several different layers and colors. Use a wooden pick or scribe to scratch down in the layers or pick away the paint.

SIDEBAR 3:Patina References & Ideas
Find photo references of natural patina that you like, then try and figure out the best way to duplicate the effect. Think your way through the process. Sometimes the simplest processes provide the best results. Painting patina isn’t about fancy spray guns or expensive tools, it’s about pure creativity. We’ve gotten some amazing paint effects using the leftover mesh bags from produce. The main thing with patina is to not be afraid to make mistakes; you might develop a technique of your own. If your first attempts aren’t what you want, just paint over them.